Ask Andrew Cohen and Jeremy Levitt
of Parts and Labor Design to list the projects they’re working on and there’s a
good chance your head will start spinning. Though their studio in New York’s
Flatiron neighborhood is on the small
side, their output borders on prolific,
encompassing projects from Hong Kong
to Savannah. It makes you wonder
how they get any sleep (let’s just say
that’s a work in progress).

It helps that the duo, who met work-ing at AvroKO, have complementaryskill sets—Cohen is an architect and Levittis an industrial designer. “We’ve alwaysworked back–to–back—that’s our thing,”says Cohen. “You need a yin and yang,a balance in the project, so that oneperson is pushing things to places thatthe other isn’t going to take them.”Since they began their partnership in

2009, the gregarious twosome’s designshave shaped all manner of hospitalityspaces, from restaurants and bars inNew York to hotels in New Orleans andNashville. What’s more, they also custom-design about 90 percent of each project,including furniture, lighting, and artinstallations. While it makes each jobsignificantly more labor-intensive for thestudio, it’s an essential part of theirprocess. “Custom works are somethingthoughtful—objects that are editedand designed to solve a design or aes-thetic problem in a way that purchasedthings wouldn’t,” Cohen says.

Parts and Labor’s custom lighting,
for example, evokes a turn-of-the-century
industrial vibe, but it is as suited to the
studio’s design for the Grey—a sleek diner-bar in a historic Art Deco Greyhound
bus terminal in Savannah—as it is to the
glamorous 224-room Thompson Nashville
hotel (a departure from the hotel brand’s
usual aesthetic), which opened in
October 2016.

When pondering how best todescribe their approach to their hospi-tality spaces, Cohen recalls a quotehe recently read online: “If you’re notmaking anybody nervous, you’re notdoing anything special.” They alwayswork hard to manifest a client’s vision,he says, but they’re not afraid to suggestsomething out of the ordinary. “If noone’s taking any risks, then you’re notpushing any boundaries,” he says. “Youcan be relentless and not be reckless.

You can be responsible and thoughtfuleven though you’re pushing it.”Recent and upcoming Parts andLabor projects include the New York–based coworking space Blender, andcollaborations with several renownedchefs, including Marcus Samuelsson(for whom they’ve already done arestaurant in Bermuda) and MichaelSymon. They’re also creating threerestaurant spaces for the RosewoodHong Kong, a multiuse tower that willopen on the Victoria Harbour water-front in 2018.

All this to say that things aren’t likely
to slow down anytime soon. But Cohen
and Levitt—who anticipate their team of

17 will expand this year—are at ease withthe growth, and both are hungry for newopportunities to “reinvent the wheel.”“I think that no matter how oldwe are and how long we’ve been doingthis, we will always be learning,” saysLevitt. “The point where we’ve stoppedlearning is the point that we just needto retire.” M